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UNF student gathers winter clothes for area's homeless

Jon Preston for Shorelines A homeless man at the Beaches looks into the camera of UNF student Jon Preston.

Carl Krokstedt for ShorelinesUniversity of North Florida student Jon Preston, surrounded by some of the clothing he recently collected for the homeless.

By Hali Harden

Special for Shorelines

He can usually be found in front of the amphitheatre across from Freebird in Jacksonville Beach playing his guitar. He carries a backpack that holds some clothing and a few personal items. His hair is matted and a beard covers his face.

With a lively attitude, he shakes hands and greets many of the people who pass by as if they were a personal friends.

He is homeless.

Learning the story of that man inspired University of North Florida student Jon Preston, a resident of Jacksonville Beach, to collect more than 400 articles of winter clothing for homeless people in the Jacksonville area. The effort took just a few weeks.

Preston, an economics major and photography minor, said he had too much free time and wanted something fulfilling to do. On Oct. 3, Ryan Tinney, also a UNF student and resident of Jacksonville Beach, called Preston and told him about a documentary he was working on for his documentary workshop class. It featured a homeless man who played his guitar around Jacksonville Beach for money. Tinney told Preston that the man had expressed a dire need for warm clothing for the upcoming winter months. He needed jackets, pants and socks.

That evening Preston created a Facebook page urging others to give. After speaking with people who have organized clothing drives before, he was told the hardest part was actually getting the clothes.

“Everyone wants to do something nice,” Preston said, “but people are busy, too.”

The Facebook page included Preston’s phone number and an offer to drive to people’s houses to pick up the unwanted clothing.

This wasn’t Preston’s first foray into helping those less fortunate. When he was around 15 years old, he and his brother would take their father’s clothes and give them out to homeless people in their hometown of Fort Lauderdale.

While growing up, Preston saw his father giving to others whenever he could. He remembers his father taking him to a driving range as a young boy, and meeting a man who worked there driving a golf cart around picking up golf balls. The man was missing one of his legs. Preston’s father bought a synthetic leg for the man in order to help him get a better job.

During the 2011 spring semester, Preston was struggling to find a direction in one of his photography classes. He found it when he began a project taking photos of homeless people in Jacksonville Beach.

Although he doesn’t smoke, Preston said he would go out and buy three packs of cigarettes to hand out to his subjects in order to get their blessing to take the pictures. It was by doing this that he learned more about what they really wanted, and needed.

“Homeless people tend to be honest with you,” he said. “They don’t even want money.”

For the project he only needed five to six photos — he ended up with around 15.

Now, after a few weeks and many days of driving around Jacksonville Beach picking up donated clothing, Preston has accumulated a surplus of 400 articles. The collection includes long-sleeve shirts, pants, socks, and jackets.

Preston will begin distributions this month, and will continue until Thanksgiving, or when all clothing is donated. He will give out the clothing in front of the Mission House in Jacksonville Beach as well as downtown at the I.M. Sulzbacher Center.

Preston’s friend, Ryan Brotman of Jacksonville, said he is inspired by the devotion to the clothing drive.

“I think that it really says something that he’s not donating money, but his time,” said Brotman, “which I feel is a more uncommon form of charity.”

For those interested in viewing Tinney’s documentary about the man he describes as a “generous, lively, outgoing, homeless hippy,” a public screening is being scheduled for some time in December at the Museum of Contemporary Arts located downtown at 333 N. Laura Street. Jillian Smith, Tinney’s documentary workshop professor, is planning the viewing, which will also include documentaries made by the entire class.

Tinney said he plans to include footage of Preston distributing the clothes at the end of their film. He also said that the man featured in their film does not know about the drive, but that they plan to surprise him with clothing as thanks for participating in their documentary.

“[Homeless people] are not just some lazy bum — they’ve got a story, they’ve got a family, needs and goals. They need help, and a lot of people don’t like asking for help, and a lot of people don’t like giving help,” Tinney said. “And there’s kind of a wall that’s inadvertently been put up against helping people in that situation.”

As for Preston, he plans to use the clothing drive as a platform for pursuing other philanthropic purposes. He hopes to talk to local business leaders in the food industry — such as Panera Bread and Publix — and start distributing leftover food.

Hali Harden is a University of North Florida student enrolled in the Applied Journalism course taught by Professor Paula Horvath-Neimeyer. Look for other contributions in Shorelines from students in this class in the coming weeks. Send feedback to Shorelines@Jacksonville.com.